//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Critical failure // Story: Equestrian scrolls II: Return To Nirn // by Sanguine Eyes //------------------------------// "This would be so much easier if we just flew..." Rainbow Dash kicked a stone that rolled gently off the path. "Didn't you read the details I gave you?... flying ponies would freak people out, a mass of flying ponies would likely trigger a violent response in fear of an impending invasion, and finally the dragons here are a lot more violent and a lot more cunning and a whole lot more hungry for small flying things than the dragons in Equestria." Rainbow Dash peaked back at Spike who gave a nod in agreement. He could still remember Twilight's early attempts to fly about in Skyrim's skies, as fun as it was, it was a little depressing that literally everything in this land wanted to kill them when they took to the skies. The group consisted of just a small handful of the elite guards Luna Twilight and her friends, all in human form trying not to look awkward walking around on two legs heading up north. Everypony else guarded the Citadel which Celestia and many of the unicorns constantly refreshed their concealment spells upon. Celestia herself had decided to stay until it was time to go see the high king, and the portal needed at least somepony powerful enough to destroy it preventing any unforeseen invasion attempt, guarding it. Twilight's joyful thoughts came to a sudden halt. Everypony else didn't notice the or recognize the noise but she did. She waved for the group to stop and signaled for the guards to take up defensive positions. They crouched in wait spears drawn as Rainbow and AJ stood ready behind Twilight who drew her staff waiting eagerly as the soft echoing sounds became more evident. A soft whistle and Luna's head jerked to the side avoiding an arrow that flew blindly through the bushes. Twilight nearly had a heart attack, she was both grateful and surprised on being reminded that Luna was not actually some petty weak thing that ruled Equestria. Twilight seemed to always forget how the two sisters had actually fought in war before. Another whistle and an arrow bounced off a rock and clattered about just a few dozen feet from her. "Twi?... we under attack?" "Nope... but they are!" She pointed at the road ahead just in time to see a Khajiit and an argonian blast around the corner already tired and gasping for air. Seeing the ready guards and the small handful of other human form Equestrians the two skid on the soles of their boots and almost comedically toppled forward and rolled to a stop. The Khajiit looked at the leveled spears and turned to the Argonian with a regretful face. "Well friend... I suppose we tried our best... yes... no... yes Ra'Mani is sorry he called you dense... yes... no... yes.... no. Ra'Mani is not sorry.. you get Ra'Mani killed..." The Khajiit spoke in a rather annoying tone with short bursts of energy that suggested he was not entirely there upstairs. The guards stared in confusion at their first experience encountering a Tamrielian. However, Twilight's eyes were glued to the Argonian who laughed and giggled. "Well I thought they were friendly you should have let me talk to them... maybe I could have graced their dull barbarian minds with my knowledge on the Dwemmer ha!... yes...but yeah no matter how you look at this its totally your fault. You speak with flames when words would do far better." Twilight walked past the guards and looked down at the Argonian with wide eyes. "Geel?" "Aha! and its my amazing reputation precedes me.. perhaps that has saved us" "Oh? Ra'Mani thinks maybe you owe her money from your stupid failed expeditions into the ruins... yes... no... yes!" "Geel what are you doing?" Twilight stared at the Lizard who righted himself and looked to be about to speak when another Argonian rounded the corner slashing a heavy dull axe into the side of a bandit's head knocking him out or quite possibly killing him. "Brother! are you alright?" The near pitch black muscle bound Argonian stepped forward weapon ready at the guards. Twilight could see the experience in his step and the powerful sway in his limbs, much like the way Baldir carried himself. This Argonian was a fighter, a very good one at that. Few among the group of ponies would be a match for him, but she was not foolish enough to waste life putting this problem to rest with force. Diplomacy could get anypony killed in Skyrim, but she had a feeling it would save lives worth saving here. "Guards... kill anything that comes around that corner these three are allies!" They hesitated before Luna nodded and gestured to them. Quickly they dashed off to keep watch on the corner. Luckily the big Argonian's efforts seemed to have driven the bandits away. "Allies? Ra'Mani is confused.... how did one as dense as this one find anyone who could tolerate his obnoXIIIIIIIAAAH!!!" The tall Argonian stepped on the Khajiit's tail as he strode forward picking Geel up by the back of his robes. His next motion was a quick and suspicious glare at Twighlight as he placed himself between her and his apparent brother. "Who are you?" The Argonian glared fiercely at Twilight, his eyes searching for a reason to react violently. I see trust is still hard earned here "I am Twilight..." She intentionally left out the rest of her name and title by experience. "It may sound a little odd but I owe Geel a lot for helping me and the Arch mage for something... something that is going to be really very hard to explain." All three of the Tamrielians looked up with a fair amount of confusion. "....um.. I don't mean to question your debt which I am happy to hear is on YOUR side... but... I have never met the arch mage before... how could I have helped her, heck I have never met you before either. I feel your debt is going to be VERY hard to explain..." "You know the Arch Mage strange woman? Ra'Mani is looking for the arch mage... yes.. no... yes Ra'Mani hires mercenary and dull Dwemmer tinkerer to help Ra'Mani look for his master." The Khajiit beamed with pride after his oddly wide crosseyed eyed giggle. "Wait...master?... do you mean simply that you are a part of the College of Winterhold?....I don't remember ever seeing you there" "Ra'Mani is offended! How do you strange human not know of me? Ra'Mani the great. Ra'Mani learns directly from Arch Mage Taara Silvershield.... yes.. no... yes.... yes" Twilight's mind churned and chewed on this new information. She never knew Taara to actually take on a student. Especially someone this odd. Even in her own case Taara taught her but never officially took her or anyone else on as an actual dedicated student. "Like I said it is very hard to explain. I just need to get to the College I need to find the Arch mage..." The three gave another confused stare. "Where have you been girl?....Shes not at the college. This fur brain hired me and my brother to help him find her. Shes been missing for two years." Twilight's eyes shot wide and she stepped back. "What could have possibly changed the future of Nirn this much... I am certain that nothing could have gone and...." She froze deadly still and a memory flooded back up into her mind. 'Oh you are just angry because I know more about the Dwemer than you...and that whole thing where I accidentally caught the college on fire....and tore an unstable rift into Aetherius with that Dwemer device...and...um..' The memories burned in her mind. Something did not match up. She looked over at Geel. "Geel... how old are you?...." The Argonian tilted his head in question before he stood firm and stated in a matter of factly type of voice. "I am 17... and well beyond the petty levels of knowledge of most mages and other tinkerers." Twilight's jaw dropped. It hit her like a train. His voice was much lighter and he was even physically different. He was actually smaller and his scales looked shinier and less dirty. The Geel she knew was at the very least 30 years old. "No... no no no... no.. I was so certain ... how did I mess up. The calculations were flawless..." Luna stepped closer, the concern on her face very clear. "Twilight?... what is wrong?" "We are early... over a decade early. This is not the same time that I found myself in Tamriel." She fumbled with her thoughts, all her plans and all her backup plans were basically useless now. She knew almost everything about this region but very few wished to speak of the time that occurred after High King Ulfric was killed. She had asked Taara a few times but she had always responded with the same 'Ill tell you about it some day' line. Taara fed that line to her for every time she wanted to know about something Taara did not want to talk about. "This is bad... we have to go back to Celestia... we need to rethink our strategy..." "Ra'Mani sees the stupid humans have not heard.... Ra'Mani believes she is first yes... no... yes!... Ra'Mani hired the lizards to help Ra'Mani find Arch Mage... yes... yes... and though Ra'Mani has the clue.. yes... no... yes.... yes... Ra'Mani hears from reliable ears.. yes... Other Khajiit knows, they see Arch Mage by dwemmer ruin!" His voice trailed into a high note that aggravated all who were present. "He means that a group of stupid Khajiit say they saw the Arch Mage and sold this rumor to him for 50 gold...." The Dark Argonian grumbled annoyed and aggravated. Even Twilight sighed. The Khajiit was either a complete lair and a fool or he had something completely unknown about him that made him very important, important enough for the Arch Mage to actually care about this buffoon. "Princess Luna.... please take the guards back to Celestia and let them know what happened... " She turned to her friends and cleared her throat. "I know its probably pointless to go and investigate this... but it is literally the only thing we have as far as an idea to Taara's location... I wont force you to come but I would like some backup..." Applejack shot an eye at Rainbow who smiled. They both looked back and nodded happily before pinkie popped up between them eager to please. However, Fluttershy and Rarity did not move. It had been a very rough time so far, despite the weeks of preparation things still had moved a little fast for their liking. "Um... I.. um... need to practice more Twilight..." Fluttershy couldn't manage to make eye contact. "I would come darling but.. I am not completely sold on this idea... and I do not wish to go far from the guards...I have complete faith that you would be capable of defending and guiding us but... Ill give you a rain check on this portion of our adventure..." She gave her best smile. Twilight was not offended nor very surprised. "Its ok.... You two go back with Luna... I will make sure we make some progress and we should be back by Sundown... if not then send my brother and Spike to come out after us, Spike will easily find us." She smiled happily trying to reassure and comfort her friends. She had to admit she could feel their discomfort at the entire ordeal and it almost felt like it had distanced them to a degree. She needed them to know that she was ok with them needing time to take it all in. But at the moment she needed to find Taara. This new nugget of information was burning a hole in her soul. She never once heard about Taara disappearing or being missing for any amount of time, much less two whole years. "Come on you two... we are heading back... Good luck Twilight...I will relay these details to my sister..." Luna gave a smile to Twilight hoping she would catch the tone of her voice, the same tone that said 'you do what you need to do but don't forget the rules on this expedition of yours'. Rarity and Fluttershy gave their best wishes and left with Luna. As soon as the last guard was out of sight Twilight turned to the dark Argonian. "I have the same doubts as you... but if you cannot tell I need to know more. I am coming with you" The Argonian glanced her way with untrusting yet lax eyes. "Very well, but make no mistake... I don't care who you are or what you are... so long as my brother is safe..." "Very well, and I know my word wont mean much to you but rest assured I value your brother's life and I do not wish to see it end. However, unlike you I do care who I travel with... As I said, I am Twilight, this is Rainbow Da... Rainbow, AJ, and Pinkie.... " She left out the fullness of the names hoping to avoid the awkwardness she knew would be there form the names. However, the look coming from the dark Argonian made clear what he thought of the names. "Ahem... may we know who you are? Even if only to know what to call you?" The Khajiit shot up and answered the question not directed at him before the Argonian could speak. "I am Ra'Mina... the legendary Ra'Mina... yes... no... yes...hee hee... yes... This is the muscle head and the dull one... yes..." The 'Muscle head' gave a closed fisted swat over the Khajiit's head. "I am Ras'Kiel... you may call me Ras... You already seem to know my brother Geel..." Twilight nodded happily. "Yes... though if you don't mind me stating it... that is not an Argonian name..." "Neither is Geel. We were adopted....but how about we do less talking... and more moving... I am eager to get this over with... I can only take so much fool before I start to wretch..." Ras glared at Ra'Mina in anger as he giggled to himself. "Well then... lead the way" ------------------------------------- It was another few hours of relatively silent travel as they headed in the direction of some preciously unheard of Dwemmer ruin. According to Geel it had only just been unearthed after a heavy rainstorm a few months ago. Twilight had not heard of it before, but this was not surprising. After her first time in a Dwemmer ruin with Taara and Ra'Shala she decided that she would far prefer to learn about them through reading. Too many things inside that wanted to kill people and would not listen to logic or reasoning. She of course went on many more expeditions since, but she just was not that into willingly traversing Dwemmer ruins or studying them. It was their culture, technilogical advances, and history that sparked her passions. It took only about five minutes for Twilight to softly cast a mute shield around them so she could talk to her friends without Geel's party hearing them. All she accomplished however was just a little less trust from Ras who seemed to notice her actions, and a little more worry from Applejack. "He keeps looking over here...Twilight... just let me at him..." Rainbow grumbled flexing her hands as Twilight just sighed. "Rainbow... you still cant win against Spike...calm down..." She worried about Ras. She never met him before, granted she hardly knew Geel but the way Ras walked with him suggested that he was very protective of his brother, which begged the question; where was he when Twilight first came. Geel had already started up plenty of fights or rather beatings. Especially from the mages at the college, with how protective Ras was, why were the mages still in tact? Her train of thought was abruptly interrupted when Geel peeked back and spoke. "Weird girl!... we are here." Quickly dropping the mute shield Twilight smiled happily and came up along side the Argonian to see a sunken ruin still half way under the mud. It did not even look to be worth entering but Geel happily approached and poked about. Shortly after his poking and prodding he was rewarded with a loud clack and what looked to be a normal wall opened up. "Wait.... why the wall?... " Twilight looked about what little she could see of the ruin. There was a door but it seemed completely untouched. The building itself looked like it was sinking to one side which was explained by the fact that it was buried under the dirt. She processed the information and decided to let it go passing it as just a long since abandoned Dwemmer watch post or at the very most a Dwemmer construct that was designed to be sank into the earth for some odd reason. Ducking just low enough to enter the small crowd made its way into the old ruin, it was not a very impressive sight. What caught Twilight's attention was twofold. First the air was mixed. Both stale and fresh, more than it should have been, then the fact that Ras appeared to refuse to enter anything but last, even when his brother shot in first. She gripped her staff tighter ready just in case Ras decided to do more than just suspect Twilight and her friends. "Oh goodness! just look at all of this, its just beautiful so beautiful! undisturbed for thousands of years... everything is still in its original place... ah! a Dwemmer lock chest... just look at this.. the design is flawless. This must be a masterpiece of work... Ras... Brother can we t-" "No..." Ras seemed utterly unimpressed and unmoved by anything occurring at the moment. "We keep moving, We can look around in other ruins... for now lets stick to just this search the furball is paying us for." Surprisingly most of the trip Pinkie remained utterly quiet, just silently taking in everything there was to see. It almost unnerved the other ponies having her be quiet for so long. However, what was more unnerving was the fact that Twilight could not hear her at all at the moment. It was dark and she could hear everything echoing around in the ruins. Geel was the one that would not shut up but she could hear the foot falls of only six people. Ras, Ra'Mani, Geel, Rainbow, Applejack and herself. Pinkie's human form was slightly shorter than most, and with her more energy filled strut her pace was quick and over exaggerated making her foot falls sound very easy to pick out. But she could not hear them at all. Closing her eyes she focused, listening to the echos feeling for void spots in the space where noise did not bounce off of. There was nothing she could immediately tell. All she could feel was the silence and nonexistence of her friend. Picking the staff off her back she remained calm, if she could fool whatever it was that took pinkie from thinking that she knew then it would be more careless. Though her heart sank in grave worry and anger. Sweating and clenching her teeth tightly she had to struggle not to turn and alert the others. That is when she felt it. Geel and his present company suddenly vanished. There was no sound and no noise. All at once they simply stopped being there. Twilight whipped around and fired a massive blast of fire directly between Rainbow and AJ expecting to hit either a monster or at least something she could break to pieces while demanding for her friends back. Instead she was rewarded with the blast knocking them all back. It had hit a wall, a wall that stood exactly where they had just walked through. "What the hay Twi? what is going on? wait.. where is.." "I don't know... Pinkie went missing and suddenly so did Ras and Geel..." Twilight allowed herself to start panicking. Whatever this was her friends were in danger and she had no way of protecting them. "Twilight... calm down... w... we have to focus.." She was almost impressed with how her two present friends were not completely freaking out. 'pfooof!' Twilight twitched at the sound. Looking up she saw a Khajiit. Far too small to be an adult, but what really caught her eyes was the device in her hand. A small tube. So simple and easy to use. Twilight was not surprised to hear Rainbow Dash falling into a pile out cold with a small dart in her neck. "Wait! wait! wait!.." Twilight's hands came up but she was speaking to both Applejack and the small Khajiit who had a playful look on her face. She could feel it. Something about the young creature screamed at her. She was far too familiar, almost like she resembled someone familiar. Applejack did not so much as get one boot on the ground towards the little Khajiit as an armored foot kicked the back of her knee from the shadows, bringing the humanized pony to waist height. Quickly a cloth covered her mouth and nose. Twilight had only just barely came about and brought her staff to bear in time to see Applejack's eyes roll back from whatever was on the rag. But as fate would have it her vision was soon entirely blocked by something that brought her a whole lot of hope and twice as much dread. The flat side of a skyforge steel axe in full swing.